The challenges of global climate change and energy circuitry demands have made the development of renewable energy alternatives vital for the future of mankind. The use of direct sun radiation on solar panels can potentially produce more than enough energy to meet the energy needs of the entire planet. As the price of solar power decreases and the pollution caused by conventional fuels is rising, the solar business has entered a new era of worldwide growth.
In order to bring technologies to exploit solar energy one step closer up to par with conventional fuels, the efficiency rate of solar systems must improve. Solar panel efficiency depends amongst other things on the cleanliness of their surface. Energy losses caused by dust and soiling can reach over 40%. In desert areas, where many solar parks are located, the soiling and dust problem is significant.
A fast growing type of solar park is the solar tracker park. The solar trackers have the ability to follow the sun's position continuously from morning to evening by changing their tilt angle from east (in the morning) to west (in the evening) in order to increase efficiency. Automatic cleaning solutions for solar trackers usually involve high volumes of water and/or the installation of special grids in the solar tracker park for moving automatic cleaners from solar tracker to solar tracker. Such solutions are not cost effective and require added labor for installation.
Systems for cleaning solar panels are known in the art. US patent application publication no. 2015/0272413 A1 to Miyake et al., entitled “Autonomous-Travel Cleaning Robot” is directed to a self-propelled cleaning robot that can efficiently clean a flat surface even if a step is formed. The cleaning robot can self-travel on a structure to clean a flat surface of the structure, the structure being installed in an outdoor location. The robot includes a robot main body in which a self-propelled moving means is provided, a cleaning unit that is provided in a front portion and/or a rear portion of the robot main body, and a controller that controls activation of the moving means. The controller includes an attitude controller that detects an attitude of the robot main body. The attitude controller includes a floating detection sensor that detects floating in one of the front portion and the rear portion of the robot main body. The controller controls the activation of the moving means such that the cleaning unit passes through a place where the floating is detected after the floating is eliminated. Similar structures are disclosed in US patent application publication nos. 2015/0236640 A1 and 2015/0229265 A1.
Many state of the art solar trackers are covered with an anti-reflective coating for increasing solar energy production efficiency. The use of robotic cleaners travelling over such solar trackers can ruin and destroy the anti-reflective coating within a few months. This is due to the weight of the robotic cleaner travelling over the surface of the solar panels and to the force at which cleaning brushes on the robotic cleaner impact and press on the surface of the solar panels as the brushes clean the surface. Solar tracker park owners can thus increase solar energy production efficiency by reapplying the anti-reflective coating, thus increasing the costs of maintaining the solar tracker park, or by not using an anti-reflective coating, thus not maximizing solar energy production.
Solar trackers are used the world over and are located in locations which can have varying wind conditions. A concern for solar tracker park owners using a cleaning robot is the safety and durability of the cleaning robot under varying wind conditions. A heavier robotic cleaner, as mentioned above, may prevent the robotic cleaner from being lifted off the surface of a solar tracker under heavy wind conditions however the increased weight may ruin and destroy the anti-reflective coating used to increase solar energy production efficiency. There is thus a need for systems and methods for cleaning solar trackers using a cleaning robot wherein the weight of the robot will not ruin any anti-reflective coating on the solar trackers and wherein the safety of the cleaning robot is not compromised even under heavy wind conditions.